Your Mac can record HDTV

In the US, all of the new HDTV cable boxes are required to have a Firewire port on them. And if you have Mac running OS X, all you need to record some high-definition TV on your computer is a long enough Firewire cable — and the right (i.e. free) software. Apple conveniently provides an HDTV-capable recorder in their developer tools, which a crafty coder has pulled out and given to us as a slightly modified, slightly friendlier version. The app still isn't exactly user friendly — apparently even Apple engineers can be known to write applications only other engineers can use — but Mac OS X Hints has some clear instructions on how to use the application to record HD programming, which should do the trick until someone puts a nice, user-friendly face on this recorder.